Over January I went on the Whole30, a dietary program that seems to be part elimination diet and all nutritious diet. It was designed by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. And now, I’m going on it again!

What is the Whole30®?

Certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes) could be having a negative impact on your health and fitness without you even realizing it. Are your energy levels inconsistent or non-existent? Do you have aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury? Are you having a hard time losing weight no matter how hard you try? Do you have some sort of condition (like skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies or fertility issues) that medication hasn’t helped? These symptoms may be directly related to the foods you eat – even the “healthy” stuff. So how do you know if (and how) these foods are affecting you?

Strip them from your diet completely. Cut out all the psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days. Let your body heal and recover from whatever effects those foods may be causing. Push the “reset” button with your metabolism, systemic inflammation, and the downstream effects of the food choices you’ve been making. Learn once and for all how the foods you’ve been eating are actually affecting your day to day life, and your long term health. The most important reason to keep reading?

This will change your life.

-From the Whole 9 Life website

It is a program that gets you eating good, real food and excluding all processed and refined food, grains, dairy, legumes, potato, alcohol and sugar (even ‘natural’ sugars) and it is going to get you feeling pretty good, pretty soon! In a way, I like the constraints of this 30 day program as you I didn’t really have to think much what to cook/eat. And remember it is just for 30 days.

Click here to read the outline of the Whole30 program.

I’m not going to lie, however-  the Whole30 is pretty strict. And if you haven’t spent much time cooking your own real food (generally speaking) (read here about the benefits of cooking your own food) this could be a bit of a jump for you. But it doesn’t take long to get into the swing of things.

I think the stand out for me in this program, is that it aims to help you let go of the idea of certain junk foods.

For me, if there is one thing to remember while following the Whole30, it is that to not ‘re-create’ foods that make seem like ‘paleo’ versions of a junk food. And to avoid having dessert, which is hard I know. But remember it is only for 30 days!

How to prepare:

• For me, one of the best things ever to do to prepare for the Whole30, was write a big list of potential foods I would like to eat and then at the start of each week I would choose what I wanted to cook that week and then I would turn the weeks menu into a shopping list and then get everything I needed for that week.
• When you cook each nights dinner, cook a bit extra and keep that for your next day’s lunch.
• Don’t buy anything that you will be avoiding on this 30 day program – it will just be making it too hard for yourself.
• Prepare food on the weekend to give you more time in the week.

Meal ideas (these could be used for any meal):

Nb: Many of these ideas I had on my own whole30, others I’ve added as you may like to try them out. Many of these I need to write up recipes for – so stay tuned!

• Eggs, lots of eggs! Eggs were my go-to breakfast and quick-to-make lunch for much of the Whole30.
• ‘Sweet’ breakfast omelette.
• ‘Sweet’ breakfast omelette with blueberries.
• Scrambled eggs with fruit: This is something Dallas Hartwig suggested to me via Instragram (so I cannot take credit for the idea). I just beat two eggs, cook them in a bit of coconut oil or ghee and then mix in chopped peaches and stir until the eggs are scrambled. Top with basil leaves and pecans. This is actually really delicious!
• Basil and Tomato Frittata
• Cooked canned sardines.
• Sweet potato and coconut soup.
• Boerwors (South african sausage)/any good quality sausage will do.
• Meat balls in tomato sauce.
• Meat balls, spinach and bone broth soup.
• Cleansing and delicious salad.
• Cleansing and delicious salad version 2.
• Homemade ‘Peri Peri’ chicken: chicken thighs or breasts marinated in lemon juice, jalapenos, garlic and salt & pepper and then baked in the oven until cooked.
• Tuna/sardines on top of an avocado.
• Bone broth soups. Such as my Grass-Fed Bone Broth Pho.
• Apple, cucumber and basil salad with chicken: 1/2-1 green apple cored and chopped into cubes, 1/2 avocado cubed, 1 Lebanese cucumber cubed & a few basil leaves served with a piece of chicken.
• Chilli & Lime Prawns with Jalapeno, Mango and Tomato Salsa.
• Sesame-Crusted Sardine, Fennel and Sweet Potato Cakes.
• Baked golden sweet potatoes topped with a tsp. of ghee & served with your protein source of choice.
• Sweet potato cakes.
• Meat/fish/poultry served with a colourful salad.
• Meat and veggie nori wraps.
• Purple cabbage, mango and cucumber salad: 1/2 purple cabbage finely sliced, 2 mangoes cubed and 1 cucumber chopped into cubes. Mix together.

Recipe: Baked Tomato & Basil Frittata 

Ingredients:

• ghee or coconut oil (and extra to grease tray)
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped roughly
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 10 eggs
• 3 tbsp. water
• 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped roughly
• 1 bunch of basil leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

How to:

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees. In a pan add the ghee or coconut oil and cook chopped onion until soft.  Stir in crushed garlic, chopped tomatoes, and salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until tomatoes are soft. Then beat the eggs and water until you have a smooth consistency. Pour the eggs and cooked tomato + onion combo and the fresh basil  into a greased pan (I used a pyrex container one which was 35cm (length) by 24cm (width) by 7cm (height)). Stir in the fresh basil. Bake for about 30-40 minutes OR until cooked through (it shouldn’t wobble at all once cooked).

Recipe: Grilled Nectarine with Honey & Natural Yoghurt

Makes: 1 or 2 serves

Ingredients:

• 1 white nectarine
• 1 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
• full fat natural yoghurt
• raw honey

How to:

Cut the nectarine in half and remove the pit. Grill the nectarine halves in a pan on both sides until lightly browned. Serve with a tablespoon or so of full fat natural yoghurt and a dash of honey.

Enjoy!

It’s stone fruit season! So what better way to celebrate the delicious time of year than with a delicious fresh salad!

Recipe: Kale, Nectarine and Halloumi Salad

Serves: 1 or 2 (as a side dish)

Ingredients:

• a few leaves of curly kale
• 1 white fleshed nectarine, cut into slices and pitted
• 100g block of halloumi, cut into 2cm cubes
• butter, to cook with
• olive oil, to dress the salad

How to:

Wash the kale and then cut the kale into very thin slices. Add the kale to one or two plates (depending on how many serves you would like this to make).

Cut the nectarine into wedges and add them to the plate(s).

Cube the halloumi into cubes, then grill the halloumi in a pan with the butter. Add the halloumi to the salad. Dress the salad with a bit of olive oil.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Seafood & Sweet Potato Noodles

Makes 2 -3 serves

Ingredients:

• 1 medium gold sweet potato, peeled
• 2 teaspoons of butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• Roots and stems from coriander bunch (washed and chopped)
• 200g mussels, shelled (info on sustainability of mussels)
• 100g squid rings (info here on sustainability of squid & see Katie’s post here)
• 1 bunch fresh coriander/cilantro leaves, chopped
• a few spring onions, sliced & white ends cut off (and discarded)
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

How to:

Peel the skin off of the sweet potato using a potato peeler and discard the peels. Use a spiralizer to slice the sweet potato into noodle-like shapes OR use a potato peeler to peel the sweet potato into fettuccine-like strips (which is what I did). Do this to the whole sweet potato. In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the sweet potato until very soft. Drain the water away and set the sweet potatoes ‘noodles’ aside.

In a pan, heat the butter, garlic and coriander roots & stems in a pan and then add the mussels. Cook on medium heat until cooked through. Add the squid rings and cook for a few more minutes. Now add the sweet potato ‘noodles’ to the pan and gently stir it through to combine with the other flavours in the pan.

Serve with the chopped coriander, sliced spring onions and lemon wedges.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Coconut Custard Tart

Makes: 1 coconut custard tart

Nb: This recipe fits in a tart shell that is 24 cm in diameter and 3.5 cm high.

Ingredients:

• 1 baked coconut almond tart shell (or tart shell of your choosing)
• ~470 ml coconut milk
• 1.5 tbsp honey (or your favourite natural sweetener)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 sheets gelatin
• 5 egg yolks (you can keep the egg whites for other culinary creations)
• ice, to chill the custard later

How to:

1. Prepare and bake your tart shell.
2. Make the custard: heat the coconut milk on medium heat in a double boiler (i.e. heat the coconut milk in a large glass bowl over a smaller saucepan of a few inches of water). Add the honey and vanilla extract. Adjust sweetness to your liking.
3. While the milk is heating, soak the two gelatin sheets in water in a separate bowl or cup.
4. Separate the eggs and put in the egg yolks in a jug (discard the egg whites, or keep them for another cooking project- they can be frozen in a ziplock bag). Whisk the egg yolks until they are thick and creamy.
5. Now to the beaten egg yolks, while whisking, add a tablespoon at a time of the milk mixture until it is all mixed in. Then pour this custard mixture back into your double boiler. Turn the heat down to as low as your stove top will go. Whisk the custard mixture until it thickens a bit and can coat the back of a spoon. Rinse out and clean the jug, then pour the custard through a strainer into the jug to discard any lumps or protein that had cooked in the custard.
6. Add the soaked gelatin sheets (make sure to discard the soaking water) into the custard mixture and whisk it until the gelatin dissolves.
7. Put the jug into an empty sink surrounded by ice to chill the custard completely. Then pour the custard into the tart shell and leave the coconut custard tart set in the fridge for about 5 hours. When set, sprinkle the coconut custard tart with a bit of cinnamon.
8. Enjoy!

Above: Coconut and almond tart shell baked, chilled and brushed with coconut oil.

Making this tart crust/shell is pretty easy: just mix the ingredients (as per instructions below), grease the tray, press ingredients in tin and then bake!

Recipe: Coconut Almond Tart Shell {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free}

Makes: 1 tart shell (for tart shell that is 24 cm in diameter and 3.5 cm high)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 C. almond flour (i.e. ground almond meal) (Nb: you can use all coconut flour instead of the 1.5 C almond flour, if you like- I personally prefer this tart shell with the almond in it (taste wise)).
• 1 C. coconut flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 1/3 tsp. bicarbonate of soda (for our US friends: baking soda)
• 2 heaped dessert spoons of coconut oil, melted
• 1 tbsp. honey
• coconut oil, extra to grease the tart tin and tart shell
• 3 eggs

How to:

1. Preah-heat the oven to 160 degrees C (~320 degrees F). Nb: I used a fan-forced oven.
2. In a large bowl sift the flours, cinnamon, salt and bicarbonate of soda together.
3. Melt the coconut oil and honey together (i.e. in a small saucepan on a stove top) and then pour into the flour mixture. Use a wooden spoon to disperse the coconut oil evenly into the flour mixture. Leave this mixture to cool to room temperature.
4. Beat the eggs and then in 3 batches, mix the beaten eggs into the tart shell mixture. Mix until you have a mixture that resembles a crumbly dough.
5. Grease the tart shell you are planning to use with coconut oil.
6. Then press the mixture evenly onto the bottom and sides of the tart shell. Make sure to firmly press the tart shell – this will help keep it together and prevent it from breaking.
7. Place a piece of greaseproof paper over the tart shell and then place some baking beads on top to hold down the tart shell when it bakes.
8. Bake the tart shell for about 11 minutes at 160 degrees C (~320 degrees F) or until lightly browned. When it is cool, remove the greaseproof paper and baking beads. Brush the baked tart shell with coconut oil.
9. Fill with your favourite tart filling!

Recipe: Dark Chocolate and Banana Lava Cakes (gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free)

Makes: 2 mini chocolate lava cakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 dessertspoons cacao powder
• 2 dessertspoons carob powder
• 1 tbsp. boiling water
• 1.5 heaped dessertspoon coconut oil
• stevia powder, to sweeten
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 ripe banana, mashed well
• 2 squares of dark chocolate

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.
2. In a bowl mix the cacao and carob powder.
3. Add the coconut oil, boiling water and enough stevia to sweeten to your liking. Stir this mixture to dissolve  the coconut oil, stevia, cacao and carob powders.
4. Stir in the vanilla extract and mashed banana.
5. Spoon this mixture into two small silicon muffin cups. Place one square of dark chocolate in the middle of the mixture in each cup.
6. Bake at 150 degrees C for about 12 minutes or until the outer parts of the cake is cooked and the middle part is slightly soft.
7. Leave to cool to room temperature.
8. Enjoy!

You guys asked for it, so here is my recipe for Coconut Milk Custard! Custard is one of my favourite desserts and it’s really so easy to make. The great thing about this version of custard, is that it is suitable for those who are sensitive to dairy milk/choose not to consume milk and coconut-lovers will love it! This custard is made with real eggs yolks making it rich in protein, lecithin and choline (named an essential nutrient by the Institute of Medicine, in 1998). It also has the goodness of lauric acid in the coconut milk itself.

Thick, delicious & rich coconut milk custard: Who knew something so delicious could also be so good for you?

Coconut Milk Custard

Ingredients:

•  400ml coconut milk (full fat) (Nb: If you can’t find full fat coconut milk, you can use low fat coconut milk & add a teaspoon or so of coconut oil or coconut butter into the milk to melt together, in step 1).
• 3 egg yolks (you can keep the egg whites for other culinary creations)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract or tsp. of vanilla bean paste
• Sweetener of your choice, to taste (I used a few tsp. of honey)
• Fresh fruit, to serve

And if you don’t get what I mean at a particular step, please let me know and I can explain further!

Here is a another bean-y recipe which I hope you’ll enjoy! This recipe has options in the recipe to adapt it for those who follow a vegan and vegetarian diet (see the  ’v’ next to the ingredients). It is also gluten-free. This is my delicious version of baked beans.

Recipe: Creamy Broth-Cooked ‘Baked’ Beans

Makes: 2-3 serves

 Ingredients:

• ~1.5 C. dry navy/haricot beans (Note: the volume was taken when the beans were dry)
• 2 tsp. coconut oil (v) or ghee or butter
• 1 brown onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• spices: 2 tsp. sweet paprika powder, 1 tsp. coriander powder & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder
• 1 large tomato, chop into very small pieces
• ~1.5 C vegetable broth (v) or bone broth
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice + 1 tsp. lemon zest
• (optional) 1 tbsp. cashew cream/macadamia cream (v) or dairy-milk cream
• salt and pepper, to taste